Every season, both Panini and Topps release lots of different soccer card products – From lower-end and cheaper brands all the way to the most premium and expensive soccer card boxes and packs.
It can be difficult to work out which are the best soccer card boxes and packs to buy, particularly for anyone new to collecting, because of the wide range of choices that are on offer these days.
Finding the right soccer card packs for you is dependent on your goal; This guide looks at the best soccer card boxes and packs from a potential return on investment perspective, a pure collecting and having fun ripping packs perspective, and the best products for the most premium and high-end soccer cards.
Table of Contents
Best Soccer Card Boxes At A Glance
In a hurry? The list below shows a quick summary of the best soccer card boxes to buy, depending on what you’re looking for.
Topps Chrome – Fun to rip, potential ROI
Topps Chrome Sapphire Edition – Fun to rip, potential ROI
Panini Prizm – Fun to rip, potential ROI
Panini Obsidian – Fun to rip, potential ROI
Panini Score – Fun to rip
Panini Chronicles – Fun to rip
Topps Finest – Fun to rip
Panini Donruss/Optic – Fun to rip
Topps Stadium Club – Fun to rip
Panini Eminence – Premium
Panini National Treasures – Premium
Panini Immaculate – Premium
Panini Impeccable – Premium
I’ve taken a look at the list of the best soccer card products in more detail further down.
Where To Buy Soccer Card Boxes
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Topps: Check Prices
Panini: Check Prices
The Best Soccer Card Boxes For Potential Return On Investment
Before I get into the list of the best soccer card packs to buy for potential positive returns on investment, it’s worth noting that it’s not necessarily a good idea to open sealed wax (unopened boxes) as a strategy to sell the cards inside for a profit.
There’s often more success in buying a sealed retail or hobby box, and selling the sealed box later on the secondary market, when collectors can no longer get them from primary sellers – They’re often willing to gamble and pay for the chance to hit a big card, so there’s potential profit in doing that.
Buying soccer card boxes to open and sell the cards inside is high-risk with high-reward – Most of the time, the cards inside will have less value than the sealed wax itself, but there is the chance of hitting a big card which can sell for more than what was paid for the box, in some cases far, far more.
Having said that, let’s look at the best soccer card boxes to buy for the best chance of a return on initial investment to buy the box – These are popular sets, that include desirable parallels, auto/patch cards and inserts in most of their releases, which hold high values, for the right players.
Topps Chrome
Topps Chrome is one of the best and most popular soccer card products.
The yearly release features UEFA Champions League licensed cards, and checklists for the Chrome sets are generally loaded with rookies and good players, with some decent insert lines.
Topps Chrome cards hold good value for the right players, particularly some of the lower-numbered parallels.
Hobby boxes of Topps Chrome offer the chance at some big-hitting cards, including autographs and hobby-only parallels.
Topps Chrome Sapphire Edition
Topps Chrome Sapphire debuted as a soccer product in the 2019/20 season – The cards are similar to the flagship Topps Chrome product, but with the added sapphire color, which makes them a bit more premium.
It’s a popular set, with card designs that resonate well with collectors. Like the standard Chrome sets, there are low-numbered parallels and insert lines to chase, and while hobby boxes aren’t cheap, the cards do generally hold good value, for the right players.
Again, opening sealed wax with the intention of making a profit from the cards inside isn’t necessarily a good idea, but both Topps Chrome and Topps Chrome Sapphire are popular products, which offer the chance to pull some nice hits, which can be worth big money.
Panini Prizm
Panini’s answer to Topps Chrome is definitely Prizm – It’s very similar, with chrome cards that are popular in the hobby, particularly the World Cup Prizm sets. However, Prizm soccer sets are usually a bit short of rookies.
Prizm has become a brand that is associated in the sports card hobby with its wide range of parallels, and it’s no different for soccer. Base Przim cards are mass-produced and easily accessible, so they don’t hold huge value, but some of the low-numbered parallels can be very valuable.
We’ve seen very popular insert lines like Kaboom and Colorblast included in prizm sets in the past, so there is the chance of some big hits, which will be worth huge money.
Retail boxes sometimes disappoint, with a low ceiling on what can be packed – Hobby boxes are the way to go with Prizm, because although they require more upfront investment to buy, there’s the chance of big-hitting numbered parallels, popular inserts, and autographed cards, which is where the value is.
Panini Obsidian
The Panini Obsidian products are considered a bit more higher-end than many others – It’s a single pack per box product that will cost more to buy than many of the products on this list.
The Obsidian soccer sets usually have nice looking cards, which are popular, and good-quality, with a mix of licenses, to give collectors variety in the sets.
Obsidian cards generally hold good value, and in my opinion, should do well over time, for the right players. There are also patch and auto cards to chase in Obsidian boxes, plus it’s featured inserts like Colorblast in the past, so there are definitely big-hitting cards to be pulled in these packs.
The Best Soccer Card Boxes For Just Having Fun Ripping Packs And Collecting
The following soccer card products don’t generally include cards that will command much value on the secondary market, but the hobby, for many, isn’t all about selling cards to profit.
The sets below are generally cheaper, and easily accessible, with a lot of packs and cards, which often have a decent design – They’re perfect for anyone new to the soccer card hobby, or just want to have some fun opening boxes of cards.
Panini Score
Panini Score cards generally aren’t considered valuable or very collectible in the soccer card hobby, however the accessibility of Score retail boxes, and their low-cost, make them a great option for collectors who just want to open packs.
The Panini Score brand has some history in sports cards with American sports, and it was introduced to soccer cards in the 2021-22 season – It has a reputation as a low-end product, because of the low-end card stock it’s made on.
While you won’t be hitting any blockbuster cards, it’s a cheap retail product, which generally contains a lot of cards and packs, to have fun ripping.
Panini Chronicles
Chronicles offers something slightly different, as boxes contain cards from multiple different small sets, to combine into one product.
In the past, cards from sets like Donruss and Prizm have been included in Chronicles, and there are usually cool chase cards in boxes, which are usually the Pitch Kings or Rookie Ticket cards.
It’s generally a fun soccer card product, which offers variety, and isn’t expensive.
Topps Finest
Topps Finest is a good, and cheaper, alternative to Topps Chrome, which includes some of the best soccer insert lines out there, in my opinion.
It’s a good product, with decent quality, and deserves a mention in the list – The chrome Finest cards are similar to Topps Chrome cards, but generally have more color, and the product usually has a high number of parallels, so it makes for a fun rip.
Buying a Topps Finest hobby box is going to cost a lot more than something like a Panini Score retail box, but it’s a good option for collectors who want something higher-quality than those sets.
Donruss / Optic
Panini’s Donruss soccer product is a solid option – Boxes include popular Optic cards, which are chrome Donruss cards.
Retail boxes of Donruss have a decent amount of cards at a relatively low price, and usually have a chance of some decent parallels – It’s a great product for those who are new to collecting or just want to have fun opening packs.
The Rated Rookie line is a key part of the product, which has a history in sports cards and is popular across multiple sports.
The retail boxes are fun to open, with generally nice looking cards and the chance to pull some valuable stuff as well.
Topps Stadium Club
Topps Stadium Club cards don’t generally hold much value, but they’re liked for their photography style cards, which offer something a bit different.
The product offers decent chrome photography cards, at a relatively low price – Another soccer product that’s fun to rip.
The Best Soccer Card Boxes For Premium And High-End Cards
Collectors with a bigger budget, than the average collector, have the option of some premium and higher-end soccer card products and packs.
Sealed boxes for premium sets cost thousands of dollars, some even in the tens of thousands, so they’re not feasible for the majority of collectors in the hobby. Many of these boxes are not worth opening in terms of ROI, but for those with the budget, they’re fun to open, with some potential massive hits.
Packs from the premium brands include high-quality cards with classy designs and often on-card signatures and memorabilia patches, sometimes match-worn.
The brands below are the best football card boxes and packs for the top-end, premium soccer cards.
Panini Eminence
Panini Eminence sits at the very highest-end of soccer cards, with super-premium cards that are all very low-numbered.
Although it’s not a yearly release, it’s one of the best soccer card products. Panini released a set in 2018 for the World Cup in Russia, and again in 2022 for the Qatar World Cup.
Cases of Eminence cost huge money, but with that comes high-quality and appealing cards. The latest Eminence release, for Qatar 2022, included 10 cards per box, with at least 9 autographs (almost all are hard-signed), and cards numbered to a maximum of 10.
Cards from the set are full of appealing features, like the autographs, material patches and embedded gems.
Panini National Treasures
Panini National Treasures is a well-known, and established super-premium sports card brand, but not as much in soccer as it is with some other sports.
Similar to Eminence, it’s not a yearly release, with sets released for the 2018 Russian World Cup, and the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Cases of NT cost huge money, but sets include highly-desirable auto patch cards, as well as multiple other numbered autograph and memorabilia cards, which hold huge values.
Panini Immaculate
Panini Immaculate cards are considered very premium and high-end across multiple sports, and it’s no different for soccer.
The product is popular particularly for the patch autograph cards, but the sets generally include many different types of autograph and memorabilia cards.
Hobby boxes of Immaculate soccer are expensive, and won’t include a lot of cards, but values are high and cards are well sought-after.
Panini Impeccable
Another high-end soccer card product is Panini Impeccable.
Impeccable sets are largely driven by autograph and memorabilia cards, and they do hold value.
Like Immaculate, hobby boxes of Impeccable are expensive, and will include a small number of premium cards, but with a focus on high-quality.
